World’s fairs have long captured the world’s imagination, bringing together nations to showcase breakthroughs in technology, art, and design. From St. Louis in 1904 to San Francisco and San Diego in 1915, and Paris in 1925, these iconic expositions dazzled millions of visitors, introducing inventions, bold architecture, and unforgettable spectacles that continue to influence aesthetics, technology, and culture today.
Art historian Jennie Hirsh delves into three pivotal fairs, revealing how each both presented the latest innovations and shaped culture, design, and the world’s vision of the future.
February 23 St. Louis 1904: Meet Me at the Fair
Board a trolley and step into the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, the last great international exposition before World War I. The fair commemorated the 100th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase, as well as the centennial of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s departure from St. Louis to chart the newly acquired territory.
Credited with the invention of some of the most notable American foods—hot dogs and hamburgers, ice cream cones, peanut butter, the club sandwich, cotton candy, and iced tea—the fair was the largest such international event to date, sprawling across 1,272 acres and including more than 1,500 buildings. In addition to monumental pavilions focused on industries and inventions from horticulture and electricity to fine arts (one of the few surviving buildings that eventually becomes the St. Louis Art Museum) and machinery, the fair included structures representing 62 countries and 42 states.
Hirsh explores the fair’s staggering scale, iconic imagery, and strategic ways for reflecting both American and European ambitions, offering a vivid portrait of an era defined by innovation, spectacle, and global aspiration.
March 30 California 1915: Two World’s Fairs, One Golden State
In 1915, California curiously hosted not one but two significant world’s fairs. Between February and December of that year, visitors raced to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal and to witness the renewal of San Francisco, reconstructed from the damage it sustained in the 1906 earthquake. Set in what is now known as the city’s Marina District and extending across 600 acres, the fair’s highlights included the sparkling Tower of Gemstones and opportunities to view Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell, to use the first telephone line to reach New York from the West Coast, and to explore ideas about the emerging “New Woman.”
At the same time, San Diego’s Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park showcased the city’s strategic port, aimed at positioning it as the first U.S. port of call for vessels moving north after passing through the canal from east to west, and featured striking Spanish Baroque and Moorish Revival architecture. Whereas the San Francisco fair often framed Indigenous culture as in decline, San Diego celebrated it, and when the exposition was extended for a second season in 1916–17, many exhibits from San Francisco were transferred south.
Hirsh examines both fairs through their architecture and technological innovations, revealing how two competing cities leveraged world’s fairs to shape local and national identity and leave a lasting mark on California and the nation.
April 27 Paris 1925: Art Deco on an International Scale
The Paris International Exposition of Industrial Design and Decorative Arts in Modern Life attracted 14 million visitors over 6 months. Originally planned for 1915 but delayed 10 years due to World War I, the exposition celebrated the fusion of art, industry, and the contemporary world, establishing Art Deco as a defining international style. Visitors encountered a bold visual language that blended Cubism, Futurism, Primitivism, and Egyptology into geometric, richly decorative forms. Highlights included the Place des Invalides pavilions sponsored by Paris’ grand department stores, Le Corbusier’s Esprit Moderne, Konstantin Melnikov’s glass constructivist pavilion, and extraordinary displays of Baccarat crystal, Lalique glass, and Sèvres ceramics. Hirsh highlights how the fair reasserted France as a global tastemaker and advanced international conversations about design and decorative arts.
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